So how fares the meteorite market in these recessionary times? The supply is very low and the demand has really been going up in the last few years, says Farmer. Prices have quadrupled on certain items just in the last year. He is currently working on a $1.5 million sale of a 120-pound meteorite. He once negotiated in a similar price range with the Russians for a whopper weighing 3.5 tons. Having been burned investing in less rock-solid opportunities, Farmer says he's learned to keep his money in his inventory.
The phonograph, invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison, sent music on the sharpest tangent in its history. Mark Coleman writes about how the phonograph changed the music listening experience in his book, Playback: from the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money.
Edisonâs first phonograph was a small model which used as a record a metal cylinder covered with tin foil. The cylinder had an axle running through it so it could be turned. Next to the cylinder was a mouthpiece with a vibrating disc, or diaphragm. A needle attached to this diaphragm touched the cylinder.